Color Space

A wide range of colors can be produced by the primary color pigments of magenta, cyan, yellow, and black. Those colors then define a specific color space. The resulting space provides a position for every possible color that could be created using those particular pigments. Each type of camera has its very own way of seeing colors. The same is true for a computer monitor. A printer also varies according to the ink, paper, and type of printer. This range of color is referred to as color space. A color space describes any color that could be processed by an imaging device. The most common color space is RGB. It describes the standard color space for a typical monitor. Most standard digital cameras are able to capture in RGB, and most printers can print out images correctly in RGB. Manipulating the hue, saturation, and value of a color refers to HSV color space.

To the left is a comparison of RGB and CMYK color models. It demonstrates the difference between how colors would appear on a computer screen (RGB), compared to what they would look like after being reproduced on a printer.(CMYK)